"Adrianna!" The name bounced around his brain but he couldn't speak it out. She was standing there in black leather pants with knives strapped on its side and black leather jacket that hid her baldric. Her black hair was loose, falling to the side on her shoulders and her golden yellow eyes burnt with fury.

"How about I wring your neck?"

​​

How come she was in the cave? Did she lure him here? Was this a trap? What about all the ice that cracked and crackled outside forcing water to gush out from beneath the ground? What about the beasts that attacked him?

Adrianna laughed bitterly. "Yes, I lured you in here."

In his shocked state he had forgotten to shut his mental shields and Adrianna took the opportunity to enter his cell. But it was only for a brief moment because Ziu recovered his senses quickly and blocked her.

Silence engulfed the cave as Adrianna watched him, her rage guttering into her belly creating a revolting throe that kindled flames of murderous intent in her heart and mind. She said in a low menacing tone, "I will torture you until you beg for death, but I won't let you die." She stepped closer to him.

Ziu cringed. "So it was you who created the fiasco outside?" he asked, still sitting, stuck to the wall, not moving an inch. His mind raced as what to do next. He had to get hold of the potions he was carrying inside. "I am extremely disappointed and displeased by you," he said to buy time. "I expected my disciple to do better," he scoffed.

"Yes, I created all that. See, how easily you ran into the trap?" came the prompt reply. "I expected my teacher to be better."

Ziu's face twisted. "You—" He lunged at her with whatever energy was left in him. He had brought his wand forward but the moment he dived at her, his wand got transformed into a sword that threatened to slice her armor.

Adrianna dodged his attack deftly. In that split second, she moved her torso back managing to evade the strike of his sword. She rose up with anger bursting inside her and exploded into shadow and smoke. She appeared behind him and taking out a knife from the sides of her leather pants, struck him.

Ziu's coat was slashed on the back. The slice wasn't very deep, only enough to slash through his coat and give him a thin line of wound that stretched five inches. Blood oozed out and stained the shirt and coat crimson with a black tinge.

"You serpent," Adrianna commented sarcastically.

Extremely furious and jealous at her ability to convert into smoke, Ziu was in a frenzy. All through his life he had read a lot and amassed so much knowledge but he had never ever got that ability. It was rare and the legend was that the first Crown King could do that. So was it possible that since the Crown had injected its metal in her brain, Adrianna's genes mutated and her abilities enhanced?

He turned to face her with a mad glare. He attacked her again enraged at the sharp pain she gave him. His ankle was throbbing in pain but he had no choice. He had to somehow drive her away in order to get hold of his potions.

Ziu was not just any wizard. He was the darkest of them but he didn't know that he was facing a witch who was darker than him. In the next few moments there was a pandemonium of shadow and smoke and blades and Ziu. Adrianna would turn into smoke and strike him. He would evade her sometimes but she kept on lunging at him with all her might.

Ziu's attack was that of a master swordsman—meticulous, nimble and sudden. He fought with alacrity. But there was something in his attack that baffled Adrianna. His strikes were not aggressive. Was he buying time? What did he want to do? She narrowed her eyes to stare into his when she came down with another strike and he saved himself by bringing his sword forward. She promptly understood that he was waiting for her to tire because he knew that she wasn't able to use her magic completely. The fight would make her tired soon and he would get the advantage.

Somehow she had retained the power of converting into smoke in this land but her magic was limited. She realized that he was aware that if she could use her magic to the full, she would have killed him already. She wouldn't have banked upon her weapons. And so he was buying time.

When she attacked him next, he blocked her and then Ziu pushed her back with all his power. She stumbled back and fell on the rocky surface. This was all Ziu wanted for the moment. Immediately he took out the vial out and drank the potion. Before Adrianna could rise on her feet Ziu had regained his energy. He felt better. His ankle pain vanished and his body felt energized. Ecstatic at his efforts, Ziu took the chance and his wand reappeared. "Ponos!" he cast a spell on her. The magic floated weakly into the air in the form of dull yellow lights in Adrianna's direction. She jumped to the side and the lights went straight to hit the rocky wall behind her. The stone shook and cracked. Some pieces fell down on the floor. In order to balance her body while falling down, she left her knives, which clanked away from her on the stony ground.

Adrianna had noticed his actions, so she struck the place that he was protecting the most. She took another knife and threw at his coat's pocket that contained the rest of the vials.

Ziu screamed as a sharp knife slammed into his abdomen. In reaction, he threw another spell at her. It hit her on the head and she became slightly dazed. Ziu lost all his concentration in pain. The vials of potions that he had stolen from Professor Lane's class with difficulty were broken. The entire potion drained and got absorbed in his coat's fabric. Ziu pulled the knife out. "Aarrgh," he grunted. Without wasting time he grabbed the area where the potion was absorbed and pressed it in his belly. The wound healed within seconds.

"You bitch," he yelled at her.

Adrianna sneered. He was so busy in striking her that he forgot the first rule of war—never to give your enemy any pointer about your strength.

Ziu lunged at her again thinking that she had weakened but Adrianna jumped back and brought up two more knives from her pants to stop his sword—the blades meeting right in front of their faces. Each felt vibration of the blows in every inch of their bodies.

"You hoe! You have destroyed my vials," spat Ziu as he swirled and launched another attack at her.

Adrianna stepped back. His sword whooshed in front of her with speed creating a silvery arc. She turned and made a swift dash to the wall. As soon as she was near the wall, she scaled it two feet, pushed her body away from it, twirled in air and lunged at him with her knives. Ziu barely had enough time with him. Her knives shoved forward to the extent that they would have rammed in his throat on either sides had he not ducked slightly and prevented the blow with his hands. The impact was harsh. The knives scrapped through his skin, split open the white tissue, which glided along with the blades out of his hands. The steel bathed in his black and crimson blood.

Ziu screamed in pain, pushed her and dashed towards the cave's entrance.